Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
scriptingNews outline for 6/24/2000
Author: Dave Winer Posted: 6/24/2000; 6:29:45 AM Topic: scriptingNews outline for 6/24/2000 Msg #: 18053 Prev/Next: 18052 / 18054
What is Dot-Net?
DaveNet: Dot-What?
Microsoft whitepaper.
I was quoted in Red Herring saying "This is not going to be Web-like until you let in people you don't like."
News.Com: Microsoft brewing Java-like language.
A mysterious email from Fredrik Lundh indicates that Loudcloud is working on SOAP-for-Python.
Obvious ideas for Napster
NY Times: Napster Eyes New Business Models.
I've been doing a bunch of background processing on Napster and have some obvious ideas for extending their service. No claim of brilliance here.
Collborative filtering is key. They know a lot about my taste in music. They could help me mine the music archives. Maybe they could find something I haven't heard in 25 years? That would make me happy.
Another idea. Their database, even minus the locations of MP3s is pretty precious. They have a taxonomy of all the popular music that people alive in 2000 like to listen to and share. Before the RIAA shuts them down, which seems inevitable, please publish the taxonomy. I don't see how anyone could have any proprietary right to this information.
Since I started using Napster, I have been so much more open to music and the emotions that come with it. Running errands, I caught this song by Dan Fogelberg on a local station. Wow, it's just a story, set to music, makes the feelings rush up. I wish the music industry could get this, I saw an interview with the CEO of RIAA on TV yesterday. So heartless. All they see are dollar signs.
Feature request for Microsoft
At Esther's this year, 3COM gave out free wireless LAN cards for laptop users. The room and the conference facility was wirelessly wired. It was only a three-day conference, so this must have cost a lot to build and tear down. But Microsoft's impressive conference facility on the Redmond campus is permanent and probably in use 200 days a year.
The feature request is to install wireless networking in that facility, and provide loaner cards to laptop users. Document the feature on the Web, so that people coming to a Microsoft conference know what they have to do in advance to have a Microsoft-ready laptop.
Then the next step is to provide visual displays on the screen from people in the audience. And this would give Microsoft people ideas for software created for people who think. Thinking as a group is something computers can help with. A lot more than Microsoft realizes, I think.
Using its bulliest of pulpits, Microsoft could show every conference attendee, probably some of the most influential people in the world, how computers and thinking go together.
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